(Sir Winston) the father of the great duke of Marlborough, was descended from an ancient and honourable family in Dorsetshire. He was born at Wotton Glanville in that county, in 1610; and educated at St John's college at Oxford. He engaged in the cause of his unfortunate sovereign Charles I., for which he suffered severely in his fortune; and having married, while young, Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir John Drake of Ash in Devonshire, she was forced to seek a refuge in her father's house, when Mr Churchill's misfortunes left him none that he could call his own; and there most of his children were born. After the restoration, he was elected a burgess to serve in parliament for the borough of Weymouth; and, in 1669, his majesty was pleased to confer on him the honour of knighthood. The next year he was made one of the commissioners of claims in Ireland; and upon his return from thence, was constituted one of the clerks comptrollers of the green-cloth: but writing a kind of political essay upon the History of England, which gave great offence to the parliament, he was, in 1678, dismissed from his post. He was, however, soon restored to it again; and lived to see his eldest surviving son raised to the peerage, and the rest of his children in a fair way to promotion. He died in 1688.

(John) duke of Marlborough, and prince of the holy Roman empire; a most renowned general and statesman, was born at Ash in Devonshire in 1650. He was eldest son of Sir Winston Churchill*, who carried him to court while very young, and where he was particularly favoured by James duke of York, afterwards king James II., when only twelve years of age. In 1666, he was made an ensign of the guards during the first Dutch war; and afterwards improved himself greatly in the military art at Tangier. In 1672, Mr Churchill attended the duke of Monmouth who commanded a body of auxiliaries in the French service, and was soon after made a captain in the duke's own regiment. At the siege of Nimwegen, which happened in that campaign, he distinguished himself so much that he was taken notice of by the celebrated marshal Turenne, who bestowed on him the name of the handsome Englishman.—In 1673, he was at the siege of Maastricht, where he gained such applause, that the king of France made him a public acknowledgement of his service; and the duke of Monmouth, who had the direction of the attack, told king Charles II. that he owed his life to Mr Churchill's bravery. In 1681, he married Sarah daughter and co-heiress (with her sister the countess of Tyrconnell) of Richard Jennings Esq.; of Sandrich, in Hertfordshire. The duke of York recommended him in a very particular manner to the king; who, in 1682, created him baron of Eymouth in the county of Berwick in Scotland, and made him colonel of the third troop of guards. A little after king James's accession, he was created baron Churchill of Sandrich in the county of Hertford, and made brigadier-general of his majesty's army in the west; where, when the duke of Monmouth came to surprise the king's army, while the earl of Feversham and the majority of the officers were in their beds, he kept the enemy in play, till the king's forces had formed themselves, and thereby saved the whole army. When James showed an intention of establishing the catholic religion in Britain, lord Churchill, notwithstanding the great obligations he owed him, thought it his duty to abandon the royal cause; but even then did not leave him without acquainting him by letter with the reason of his doing.—Lord Churchill was graciously received by the prince of Orange; and was by him employed first to re-assemble the troop of guards at London; and afterwards to reduce some lately raised regiments, and to new-model the army: for which purpose he was invested with the rank and title of lieutenant-general. In 1689, he was sworn one of the privy council, and one of the gentlemen of the king's bed-chamber; and on the 9th of April following, was raised to the dignity of earl of Marlborough in the county of Wilts. He assisted at the coronation of their majesties; and was soon after made commander in chief of the English forces sent over to Holland; and here he first laid the foundation of that fame which was afterwards spread over all Europe. In 1690, he was made general of the forces sent to Ireland; where he made the strong garrisons of Cork and Kinsale prisoners of war. The year following, king William showed the good opinion he had of his conduct, by sending him to Flanders to put all things in readiness, and to draw the army together against his arrival. In 1692, he was dismissed from all his employments; and, not long after, was with some other peers committed to the tower on an accusation of high treason; which, however, was afterwards found to be a false and malicious report, the authors of which were punished. Marlborough was soon restored to favour, and in 1693, was appointed governor to the earl of Gloucester; with this extraordinary compliment from king William, "My lord, make him but what you are, and my nephew will be all I wish to see him." The same day he was again sworn one of the privy council; and in July following was declared one of the lords justices of England, for the administration of the government, in which great trust he was three times successively in the king's absence, who in 1701 appointed him general of the foot, commander-in-chief of the English forces, and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the Hague. Upon the accession of queen Anne to the throne, he was elected into the order of the garter, declared captain-general of all her majesty's forces, and sent ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Holland. After several conferences about a war, he put himself at the head of the army, where all the other generals had orders to obey him. His exploits in the field have been taken notice of under the article BRITAIN, no 348—366: we shall therefore only take notice in this place, of the rewards and honours conferred upon him for these exploits. After his first campaign he was created marquis of Blandford and duke of Marlborough. Churchill, borough, with a pension of L. 5000 for life, out of the post-office. In 1703, he met Charles III., late emperor going to Spain, who presented him with a sword set with diamonds. In 1704, having forced the enemy's lines at Schellenberg, he received a letter of thanks from the emperor Leopold, written with his own hand, an honour seldom done to any but sovereign princes. After the battle of Blenheim, he received congratulatory letters from most of the potentates in Europe, particularly from the States General, and from the emperor, who desired him to accept of the dignity of a prince of the empire, which with the queen's leave was conferred upon him by the title of "Prince of Mildenheim in the province of Swabia." After the campaign was ended, he visited the court of Prussia, where he laid such schemes as suspended the disputes with the Dutch about king William's estate, which wise conduct caused the whole confederacy to acknowledge that he had done the greatest service possible to the common cause. Upon his return to England, the queen, to perpetuate his memory, granted the interest of the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock and hundred of Wotton to him and his heirs for ever. In 1705, he made a tour to Vienna, upon an invitation of the emperor Joseph; who highly caressed him, and made him a grant of the lordship of Mildenheim. After the campaign of 1708, the speaker of the house of commons was sent to Brussels on purpose to compliment him; and on his return to England he was again complimented in the house of lords by lord chancellor Cowper. All his services, however, and all the honours conferred upon him, were not sufficient to preserve him from being disgraced. After the change of the ministry in 1710, his interest daily declined; and in 1712, on the first day of the new year, he was removed from all his places. Finding all arts used to render him obnoxious in his native country, he visited his principality of Mildenheim, and several towns in Germany; after which he returned to England, and arrived there on the day of the queen's death. After being welcomed by the nobility and foreign ministers, he attended on king George I. in his public entry through London, who appointed him captain-general, colonel of the first regiment of foot-guards, one of the commissioners for the government of Chelsea hospital, and master-general of the ordnance. Some years before his death, he retired from public business. He died at Windsor lodge in 1722, aged 73; and was buried with great pomp in king Henry VIII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey.

Churchill (Charles), a celebrated satirist, the son of Mr. Charles Churchill, curate and lecturer of St John's, Westminster, was educated at Westminster school, and received some applause for his abilities from his tutors in that famous seminary. His capacity, however, was greater than his application; so that he acquired the character of a boy that could do good if he would. As the slightest accounts of persons noted are agreeable, it may not be amiss to observe, that having one day got an exercise to make, and from idleness or inattention having failed to bring it at the time appointed, his master thought proper to chastise him with some severity, and even reproached his stupidity; what the fear of stripes could not effect, the fear of shame soon produced, and he brought his exercise the next day, finished in such a manner, that he received the public thanks of all the masters. Still, however, his progress in the learned languages was but slow; nor is it to be wondered at, if we consider how difficult it was for a strong imagination, such as he was possessed of, to conform and walk tamely forward in the trammels of a school education: minds like his are ever starting aside after new pursuits; dextrous of embracing a multiplicity of amusing objects; eager to come at the end, without the painful investigation of the means. In short, for want of proper skill in these languages, he was rejected from Oxford, whither his father had sent him; and probably this might have given occasion to the frequent invectives we find in his works against that most respectable university. Upon his return from thence, he again applied to his studies in Westminster school, where, at 17 years of age, he contracted an intimacy with a lady, to whom he was married, and their mutual regard for each other continued for several years. At the usual age of going into orders, Mr. Churchill was ordained by the late bishop of London, and obtained a small curacy in Wales of thirty pounds a year. Whether he carried his wife; they took a small house; and he passed through the duties of his station with affability and cheerfulness. Happy had it been for him had he continued there to enjoy the fruits of piety, peace, and simplicity of manners. He was beloved and esteemed by his parishioners; and though his sermons were rather above the level of his audience, they were commended and followed. But endeavouring to advance his fortune, by keeping a cider cellar, it involved him in difficulties which obliged him to leave Wales and come to London. His father dying soon after, he stepped into the church in which he had officiated; and, in order to improve his income, which scarcely produced an hundred pounds a year, he taught young ladies to read and write English at a boarding-school, kept by Mrs Dennis, where he behaved with that decency and decorum which became his profession. His method of living, however, bearing no proportion to his income, he contracted several debts in the city; which being unable to pay, a jail, the terror of indigent genius, seemed ready to complete his misfortunes: but from this state of wretchedness he was relieved by the benevolence of Mr Lloyd, father to the poet of that name. Meanwhile, Mr Lloyd, the son, wrote a poetical epistle called the Alter; which being read and approved by the public, gave the author a distinguished place among the writers of his age. This induced Mr Churchill to write the Rosciad. It first came out without the author's name; but the judicious remarks, and the severity of the satire, soon excited public curiosity. Though he never disowned his having written this piece, and even openly gloried in it; yet the public, unwilling to give so much merit to one alone, ascribed it to a combination of wits; nor were Messrs Lloyd, Thornton, or Colman, left unnamed upon this occasion. This misplaced praise soon induced Mr Churchill to throw off the mask, and the second edition appeared with his name at full length. As the Rosciad was the first of this poet's performances, Churchill performances, so many are of opinion that it is the best. In it we find a very close and minute discussion of the particular merit of each performer; their defects pointed out with candour, and their merits praised without adulation. This poem, however, seems to be one of those few works which are injured by succeeding editions: when he became popular, his judgment began to grow drunk with applause; and we find, in the latter editions, men blamed whose merit is incontestible, and others praised that were at that time in no degree of esteem with the judicious.

His next performance was his Apology to the Critical Reviewers. This work is not without its peculiar merit; and as it was written against a set of critics whom the world was willing enough to blame, the public read it with their usual indulgence. In this performance, he shewed a particular happiness of throwing his thoughts, if we may so express it, into poetical paragraphs; so that the sentence swells to the break or conclusion, as we find in prose.

But while his writings amused the town, his actions disgusted it. He now quitted his wife with whom he had cohabited many years; and resigning his gown and all clerical functions, commenced a complete man of the town, got drunk, frequented taverns; and, giddy with false praise, thought his talents a sufficient atonement for all his follies. In some measure to palliate the absurdities of his conduct, he now undertook a poem called Night, written upon a general subject indeed, but upon false principles; namely, that whatever our follies are, we should never attempt to conceal them. This, and Mr Churchill's other poems, being shown to Mr Johnson, and his opinion being asked, he allowed them but little merit; which being told to the author, he resolved to require this private opinion with a public one. In his next poem, therefore, of the Ghost, he has drawn this gentleman under the character of Pomposo; and those who disliked Mr Johnson, allowed it to have merit. Mr Johnson's only reply to Churchill's abuse was, "that he thought him a shallow fellow in the beginning, and could say nothing worse of him still." The poems of Night and the Ghost had not the rapid sale the author expected; but his prophecy of Fame soon made ample amends for the late prolixity in his fame. In this piece, written in the spirit of the famous North Briton, he exerted his virulent pen against the whole Scots nation; adopting the prejudices of the mob, and dignifying licentiousness by the aid of a poetical imagination. It had a rapid and extensive sale, as prophesied by Mr Wilkes; who said, before its publication, that he was sure it must take, as it was at once personal, poetical, and political. After its appearance, it was even asserted by his admirers, that Mr Churchill was a better poet than Pope. This exaggerated adulation, as it had before corrupted his morals, began now to impair his mind: several succeeding pieces were published, which, being written without effort, are read without pleasure. His Gotham, Independence, The Times, seem merely to have been written by a man who desired to avail himself of the avidity of the public curiosity in his favour, and are rather aimed at the pockets than the hearts of his readers.

Mr Churchill died in 1764, of a miliary fever, with which he was seized at Boulogne in France, whether he had gone on a visit to Mr Wilkes. After his death his poems were collected and printed together in two volumes 8vo.